An economical and green way was attempted for the synthesis of SSZ-13 catalysts by recycling waste mother liquids without adding organic template in the initial gel. The synthesized samples were characterized by XRD, BET, SEM, and NH3-TPD. The results showed that the recycling of mother liquids did not change the crystal structure, textural properties and acidity of SSZ-13, all of the samples show similar crystallinity, surface areas (550-580 m(2)/g), micropore volumes (0.27-0.29 cm(3)/g), particle sizes (10-11 A mu m) and Bronsted acid sites. After three recycles of mother liquids, the synthesized SSZ-13 catalyst exhibited superior ethylene plus propylene selectivity (88.7%) and catalyst lifetime (490 min) as compared to the initial SSZ-13 catalyst. [GRAPHICS] .